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[Churchill] demanded a rolling programme of more conquests, based on his belief that “the Aryan stock is bound to triumph”… In some of his private correspondence, he appears to really believe they are helpless children who will “willingly, naturally, gratefully include themselves within the golden circle of an ancient crown”.

But when they defied this script, Churchill demanded they be crushed with extreme force… when the Kurds rebelled against British rule, he said: “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes…[It] would spread a lively terror.”

Of course, it’s easy to dismiss any criticism of these actions as anachronistic. Didn’t everybody think that way then? …they really didn’t: even at the time, Churchill was seen as at the most brutal and brutish end of the British imperialist spectrum. [link]